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On Sample Book Proposal Chapters

When it comes to a book proposal, one of the most important things that you can include is a few sample chapters. But since these chapters will make or break your book proposal (assuming you have written a good book proposal that agents and editors will get through to your sample chapters) you need to make sure that your sample chapters are going to draw the reader in and make them want to keep reading. If someone does not keep reading after your included chapters – or want to keep reading – then you are not ready to send your book proposal. Instead, you need to reevaluate the pros that you have written and find out what the problem is. Here are some other things to keep in mind.

Your Sample Chapters Should be Short

One of the things that many people do not understand is that two or three chapters is not a hard and fast rule. Instead, you want to include the amount of words the two or three chapters would’ve had an that means, if you have an exceptionally long chapter is your first chapter, then you may want to include just that chapter plus an explanation of why.

Your Sample Chapters Should be Tight

You also want to make sure that you do complete revision on all of your chapters before you send them. You should put them on a shelf and then come back to them after a few weeks and try to figure out where the problem areas are. Every chapters going to have problems, so don’t send your chapters off until they are ready.

Your Sample Chapters Should be Well-Read

Another thing that you may want to do is ensure that other people have had the chance to read your chapters before you send them to someone else. These people are probably going to be your first readers. First readers of the people that read your book before anyone else – and often before you even do any editing.

Your Sample Chapters Should be Indicative of your Whole Story

You should also make sure that your chapters get people into the story right away. It does no good to include three sample chapters if they meander around and do not take your reader directly into your story. If your story starts on chapter 4, your agent has asked for three other chapters, then you need to do some major revision.

Your Sample Chapters Should be Included

Make sure that you include your sample chapters. Some people skip this entirely because they are not confident in their writing, and they are not sure if they need to include them or not. However, agents and publishers want to see your writing ability above all else. They will judge your sample chapters as much as they judge a proposal itself.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that there are lots of reasons that you should be careful about writing a book proposal. If you want to learn more about writing this proposal, or anything about self-publishing, then visit Reedsy.com.